 With the demise of the Derg, these new villages were abandoned and the inhabitants returned to their original homes.The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 170,816, of whom 86,134 were men and 84,682 were women; 11,387 or 6.67% of its population were urban dwellers.The majority of the inhabitants said they were Muslim, with 97% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 2.8% of the population practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.